Tony Ryan had not heard of Northern Rock until 2000, when broker searches threw up the bank's name as the only lender willing to finance the purchase of a home in Bedfordshire, a commute away from his new job as a research scientist at SmithKline Beecham.

Having paid his way through university using student loans, it was a fresh start. Recently separated, with two children, Mr Ryan, 46, had no savings so needed to borrow a sum to cover the full value of the two-bedroom cottage and pay for urgent repairs.

Rock proposed a mortgage at 95% of the value of the property, plus a further unsecured loan, an extra 30%, to cover the repairs. The bank was unperturbed by Mr Ryan's temporary contract at SmithKline Beecham and that he was looking only to repay monthly interest.

For a time all appeared well. Mr Ryan remained in full-time employment, was promoted and enjoyed some pay rises. He moved house after joining another drug firm, AstraZeneca, as a senior research scientist in Leicestershire. Again the property needed work. He turned to Rock for a 125%, interest-only mortgage. Then his personal finances, on a shaky footing since his university days, spiralled out of control, ending in him being refused credit. On top of the mortgage, he had personal and credit card debts totalling £90,000.

Mr Ryan asked his creditors to revise or freeze interest on this debt while a manageable repayment plan was worked out by counsellors. With a monthly income of £2,230, he had nearly £1,900 of repayments to meet - debt he could never hope to clear. All creditors quickly agreed to a review except Rock, which told Mr Ryan it was "not our policy to do that". Meanwhile, aware that mortgage repayments were about to increase with the expiry of the fixed-rate term, he arranged a sale of the property. But after solicitor and estate agent fees, as well as Rock's £4,000 redemption penalty, the deal left Mr Ryan with £1,000 of negative equity - an amount he could not afford. He pleaded with the bank to transfer the shortfall to a loan. Again, that was not bank policy. The sale would have collapsed, Mr Ryan says, had his estate agent not agreed to cut its fee.

Mr Ryan still had his unsecured home improvement loan to contend with. He had not realised mortgage redemption would trigger a clause in this loan doubling repayments. Again, he asked the bank to consider his ability to pay. Again, that was "not policy".

Mr Ryan, who is coming to the end of a spell off work due to depression, was filling out bankruptcy forms yesterday. "I don't want to do it," he said. "But I have no alternative."